We were given in our brief a few useful links and one of them was http://info.arplus.com which takes you straight to the Architectural Review magazine website. Here I was able to look through the interactive issue and get some ideas of the double page spreads they have. I have also looked at some more magazines to use in comparison, this process is in a powerpoint and will then continue into my process of how I make my magazine!

In lesson we started to draw out some magazine double page spreads which are below! There just little quick ideas to get a rough idea of layout and design at this early stage!

So we finally have our brief! I absolutely love the idea and the project ahead! I have to create two front cover designs for a new look of Architectural Review magazine which must show how the design will relate to a series. One of the front covers must feature a lead article on the revival of a historical architectural period. Along side designing two front covers I must also design a double page spread which will feature one of the front cover articles, no advertising is to be used throughout the design. The text cannot be dummy text and has to be from an existing article on a similar theme. I have to use a minimum of 3 images throughout my designs, incorporate the title and use the 5 column grid. I am expected to make some use of the white space within my design also.

So there’s my brief! I’m going to start by looking into Architectural magazines, comparing them by layouts and seeing how they use the continuity of their chosen grid with double page spreads.

I haven’t posted for a while as most of work has been drawings but also because I’ve been panicking about getting all my work done on time! I have work 3 nights a week and work at the weekends and I am finding it really hard to fit everything in. I had a tutorial with my tutor Chris and explained my problems and to resolve them he suggested drawing out a time-table of my week and seeing when my free time is. I drew out my time-table and the next day went through it with Chris, I found this did help and I realised I needed to make the most of my time and be practical in the right free space.

I used Excel just to quickly make up a template of a timetable, here it is;

Here is this weeks timetable as such with the projects I want to concentrate on;

Tasks;

Packaging project;

Have designs made on Illustrator

Pick which design works best

Draw out packaging designs for the bottles (the nets)

Start designing the packaging for the bottle on Illustrator

Magazine project;

Write brief up on blog

Start looking into the magazines

Place on blog and write-up

Poster Project;

Scan in ideas to blog

Start drawing ideas/experimenting (put ideas on paper)

Write up work on blog

Feeling positive to the start of next week! I really hope this works! 🙂 *fingers crossed*

I’ve been updating this reserach and finally have decided to put it on my blog! I started to look into chinese styled items and patterns which had a modern take on them and were not stereo typically designed.

So I found out last week that my film title would be “The astounding eyes of Rita”, at first I found this really hard to think of good story lines accept the obvious ones. I started to do a brain storm on paper so the obvious ideas I had would be gone and hopefully the better ideas would come though. This also allowed me to start developing ideas into better ones and take them further, I will scan in the piece of paper soon.

As I had been previously looking at stereo typical genre posters I wanted to move away from these designs and ideas. I started to look at the works of Jason Munn on his website; http://jasonmunn.com/posters.php. The designs in my opinion are very simplistic and don’t give much about the story away but they give enough, some shapes that have been created have a double meaning. For example here is some of his work I like most;

These three examples above all have double meanings because there shapes represent two things, the first example starting on the left looks like the shape of an eye and an old record player. The record is black with a white circle in the middle which has writing in the centre, in reality this would be giving details about the songs and the artist. The white square behind this is only just wide enough so we can see it either side of the record, this to me represents the white section of the eye. The shape in which the wire is making is enough for us to recognise its an eye without all the intense details which we don’t need! The second example in the middle again has traces of a record in the centre with the circular shape and the black section with writing on same as before. The extra added feature with this is the representation of a bird’s nest, the record in brown (same as twigs) and the circle isn’t a clean shape as it has pieces of twigs ruggedly coming out of the shape. The final example on the right is definitely one of my favourites! We don’t know anything but about the story line other than the title but this design is just simply brilliant! The sheet music has been turned into what looks like an edge of a cliff/waterfall/mountain with the notes falling down, the design is so clean and straight which is what appeals to me. The final added feature which is just the cherry for me is the little boat which looks to be sailing down the river, it’s not great in detail bu there’s enough to see what it is and very simply starts to tell a story.

The first example again starting from the left is just so simple yet gets the message across perfectly! The three triangular shapes are representing three mountains with a sun behind the middle one in the centre. At the tops of the mountains we always typically think they have white sections which represent snow but this idea has been taken further and used to shape up a design of a rose. This is very cleverly designed again refers to what I have said previously that shapes have double meanings, also in this poster everything is aligned extremely well. The sun is completely central which is aligned with the mountain in the middle, the rose again is aligned central and the stem of the rose is exactly in the middle of the poster. Alignment for me is something that has to be 110% correct, I love to see something that is aligned correctly so this poster is definitely one of my favourites! The second example in the middle is again very cleverly designed at first it looks like a night sky with stars and a bird laying on its back with its feet in the air but if you look further you can see more. The beak of the bird is not representing the beak but it also represents two trees the same as the birds feet, this design again refers to a shape having double meanings it just depends which way you look at it. The final example on the right is called Giant and I really think the design of this poster relates very well! We have a very big cowboy boot which is the main feature in this poster but what is clever about the design is the extra feature of what looks like a water tower of some sort or electricity tower. This section of the boot is usually a spur but has been cleverly turned into else, what is brilliant in doing this is that the boot is being represented as the ‘giant’ and the little tower represents the normal size.

These are the final three examples that I really liked and had to put on my blog! Again starting from the left the first example is of a guitar and again at first glance could just look like an average guitar but if you look closer there is more detail. Usually where you strum there is a hole cut out in a circular shape but with this design it is a heart, one of the strings is actually an arrow which goes through the heart. This design and the name together suggest this poster could be representing a heart-break, the little details that are being added into not just this poster but every poster so far just finish them off perfectly and there’s no need for over detailed graphics. The second example in the middle really leaves you guessing, looking at this poster one would assume that it has some section of action in it due to the bullets and blood. The bullets are shaped like a question mark and the dot at the bottom looks to be a bullet wound as its red and has a little dribble of blood. This poster isn’t one of my favourites but I like the simplicity of it in a way its keeps you guessing and doesn’t give too much away. The final example on the right is beautifully designed, the note that is holding the two birds in the egg which has hatched is just something you wish you had created! So simple yet so effective! the title ‘Flight of the Conchords’ fits exactly in with the poster, birds flight and a chord is a musical note. It’s not directly what you think from the title because I would immediately think planes not birds so it’s always the more creative out of the box ideas which work best.

From looking into Jason Munn’s work it really is very inspirational, the ideas are brilliant and not only that but I find the colour schemes he uses are perfect. They really have all been thought out in great detail and if I was to produce something like this on that level I would be very happy. I don’t know if my poster will be simplistic like this or very busy with lots of going on but from looking at his work im definitely swaying that way and will try experimenting with some ideas.

After looking at all my ideas from the brain storming session one idea I am wanting to follow is the hurricane idea, the ‘eye of the storm’ saying comes to mind. I really wanted to move away from actually eyes because this idea seemed so ovbious and I don’t want my poster to have an actual eye on it!

In todays lesson we started to look at what fonts fit best into magazine columns and what sizes they would need to be, we used the Adobe Programme Indesign to do this and also went through some tutorials to learn how to use the programme correctly.